THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF OLIVE OIL

WHY OLIVE OIL IS SO HEALTHY

The health benefits of olive oil were thought in the past to be due to its high content of monounsaturated fat. It is now known that this is unlikely and that its benefits are more likely due to its content of anti-oxidants. Olive oil is loaded with phenolic anti-oxidant compounds.

One large study (a meta-analysis) looked at what happened over time to over ¾ million volunteers and found that high users of olive oil significantly reduced their overall mortality and incidence of cardiovascular events and stroke compared to lower users.

In other words, use an adequate amount of olive oil and you will prolong your life! And this is for just one food alone!.

Until quite recently so called health experts advised everyone to reduce their intake of fat in order to prevent heart disease and obesity - but this is not true at all. Admittedly a high-fat diet is unhealthy, but a moderate fat diet can be very healthy if you use the right type of fats. Use olive oil for salad dressings and roast and fry vegetables with olive oil and you will be adding even more healthful anti-oxidants to your diet.

People in Spain eat more fat compared to people in Italy because of their intake of olive oil and they retain all the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet.

Be aware, though, that not all olive oil sold in the stores is rich in antioxidants. Extra-virgin olive oil has the highest content of polyphenols. Pure olive oil, or regular olive oil, is a mixture of extra virgin olive oil and olive oil that has been processed, either by heat, chemicals or filtration. During the purification process a lot of the antioxidants are removed. Light olive oil is not light in fat (all olive oils contain the same amount of fat) but olive oil that has been finely filtered and is light in impurities. The impurities removed include its anti-oxidants. ﻿

Extra-virgin olive oil is preferable to other types of olive oil. It has a richer taste and higher content of antioxidants.﻿

Olive oil also protects against cancer. These are the scientific details of relevant studies:

A meta-analysis of 109 observational studies involving 13,800 cancer patients and 23,340 controls demonstrated that people reporting the highest consumption of raw olive oil ﻿had a highly significant lower risk of any type of cancer (34% lower likelihood), breast cancer and cancer of the digestive tract compared with those with the lowest olive oil intake.

Another study from Spain found that a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra virgin olive oil had a protective effect on the development of breast cancer. 4,282 women aged 60-80 years at high risk for cardiovascular disease were randomly allocated to three intervention groups - a Med diet supplemented with extra virgin olive oil, a Mediterranean diet supplemented with mixed nuts, and a control diet with advice to reduce dietary fat. After an average follow-up of 4.8 years, 35 confirmed cases of breast cancer were indentified. Women on the Med diet supplemented with olive oil had a 62% lower risk of breast cancer.